“The cock does not crow for nothing;
Ask St Peter, he can tell you.”
[290] Johnson’s Life of Lord Dorset.
[291] There was formerly a kind of ale called Cock ale, but what it was is not exactly known.
[292] Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinarie. London, 1604. Percy Society, 1841. Though this is a description of the state of London in 1603, it perfectly applies to the plague of 1665.
[293] The Art of Living in London. Poem in 2 cantos, 1768.
[294] Protestant Mercury, Feb. 14, 1700.
[295] Daily Courant, Aug. 9, 1711.
[296] Bisson’s Janus, or Small Tokens for the Old Year, and Little Gifts for the New Year. 1674. Luttrell Ballads, vol. ii. p. 20.
[297] “The reason why so many alehouses in town and country have the sign of the swan, is because that bird is so fond of liquid.”
[No English translation can convey the peculiar significance of the original. The above gives only the bare sense.]